Raytown Christian Church Growing Faith in All Generations

Ahhhhhh, almost with you again!I will be back in worship on Sunday and in the office regularly starting September 1. Meanwhile, one last sabbatical blog:

I saw two Presbyterian churches that are no longer meeting in their buildings this week. This is no offense to the Presbyterians, who are just like most of what we call “mainline” Protestants, including Disciples of Christ. Many of these churches are closing, especially in inner city areas. For various reasons, they have not been able to sustain a vital ministry within their communities.

What was especially interesting to me about these two churches is that other worshipping congregations were flourishing after the Presbyterian churches died.

The first church I saw that had closed its building was on my way driving back from my library time at St. Paul’s School of Theology. The building was for sale. Right exactly next door to that building, a mosque was being built. Though the neighborhood showed signs of abandoned stores and dilapidated homes, this brand new building stood out as a beacon of a fresh start for the community.

My time for the rest of August is especially reserved to think more about preaching; specifically, to work on my doctoral project on preaching and evangelism. You may recall that I began the Doctor of Ministry program at St Paul School of Theology here in Kansas City in January of 2010. I am about halfway through my coursework there. I started the degree knowing what I wanted to do for my final project, so I simply keep developing it as I take the classes. My topic is “preaching for evangelism.” The question I am asking is: How do preachers preach so that the person coming to church for the first time can understand and get something out of the sermon? I am passionate about making sure sermons do the job of evangelization, as well as edification.

I’m spending time in the library at St. Paul reading about evangelism, looking at video of famous preachers’ sermons, and thinking. The next phase of my project, sometime in 2012, will be talking with both congregation members and unchurched adults to get their thoughts. I’ll let you know when the time comes, because I will need your help too!

This week as Joe gleefully returned to the church, I began my last month of sabbatical.  My month began at Ray of Hope Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Atlanta, Georgia.  Ray of Hope is our largest Disciples of Christ church.  It started just 25 years ago as a Bible study in the apartment of its founder/pastor, Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale. The church is in Decatur, Georgia.  25 years ago Decatur was changing from a community of nearly 100% Anglo-Americans to a community that today is 90% African-Americans.  Ray of Hope was founded to catch the wave of new black families moving into Decatur.  And boy, did they catch the people- they currently have 5000 members.   Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale is their senior pastor still.  She is a force of Spirit-anointed power and drive.  When Joe and I created our application for our sabbatical grant two years ago, I reached high and said that I would like to go study her and Ray of Hope for part of my sabbatical.  I never dreamed I would get to do so.

While we were walking from a site in Rome, we happened across a church unlike others we had seen.  It was in a small, more modern looking building, AND it had an English sign!  It was the Scottish Presbyterian church, the first Protestant church in Rome.  You may remember that our own Disciples forebearers were from this church. We did a little happy jig when we saw the red cross of St. Andrew on their sign, the same x-shaped cross we use on our Disciples symbol of the chalice!  We made note of the time for worship and planned to attend on Sunday.  We thought we made good note of the address, too.

Sunday morning came, the alarm went off, and we joyfully got ready for worship.  We started out on our walk.  Neither of us could remember precisely where, but we thought we knew, more or less.  We had left plenty of time to get there, so no problem, right?  Twenty minutes later, we still could not find this church! We had almost given up.  At this rate, we were going to be late.  We felt the anxiety many people must feel when they visit our church.  Should we even show up late?

We have been waiting for two years, ever since we applied for this grant, to see one of the catacombs of Italy.  We chose the Priscilla catacombs because we read they would be less crowded, and after days of the crowds of Rome, a quieter place called.  We waited in the courtyard of the Benedictine convent charged with caring for the ancient cemetery.  When the guide came, she explained that Priscilla was a 2nd century noblewoman who had given some of her land to poor Christians who needed a place to bury their dead. Some 40,000 people were buried below us, and we would see a small portion of this site. We found ourselves thinking about the testimony we and our church might leave behind in our own care for the poor people around us.

Around every corner at the General Assembly, an international biannual meeting of the Disciples of Christ, we heard another amazing story of God at work.  The theme of the Assembly was "Tell It."  We were encouraged to tell our stories of Christian faith to each other during Assembly.  We met a woman whose story included inviting women leaving prison to live in her home.  We met a man whose story included being the head of the United Church of Christ, one of the first African-American persons to lead a mainline denomination. We saw a friend whose story included triumph over cancer.  We were surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ with many stories of God's faithfulness, more than could be told in a lifetime.

We are now in Nashville for the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). This is the gathering every two years where thousands of Disciples churches like us send ministers and laity to discuss and embody being the church together. Just the very idea of it is inspiring, and the act of meeting and worshiping with so many other Disciples is really something that must be experienced.

Before coming to Nashville, we were home for a few days.  We so enjoyed and benefitted from our time in Mexico, but it was indeed good to be home. It grounds you and makes you feel whole to be home. It is a comforting feeling. A feeling of "home" also comes from being at General Assembly, where we see old friends, and worship and eat together. It grounds us and provides a great sense of comfort to be amongst friends, old friends, friends who went to school with us, church camp with us, were baptized with us.

Veracruz has a sound track. Everywhere we go, there is music. In the taxi, on the bus, in the houses, on the boulevard, there is always music. Even the band for the Naval Academy plays each night, just down the street from our school. Every night, while the sun sets on the sea, we hear the sounds of trumpet and drum as the sailors play their songs. Always music. In the two worship services we attended, one at a Pentecostal storefront church and one at a Catholic cathedral, music played long before the actual services began. The music of praise called us into the sanctuaries. Always music.

Today I (Dawn) reached a milestone.  I can now understand enough Spanish that today I read a children's book meant for 1st graders and got 90% of it.  A milestone, yes.  But also an insult. After at least 6 semesters of high school and college Spanish, and now 8-9 hours of the last 10 days speaking only Spanish, THIS is my accomplishment?  I must laugh or I will cry!  Learning a new language is difficult work. Think of it- most humans don't even speak at all for two years, and then it's not until we are 6 or so that we make any sense on a regular basis.

Both of us have felt so vulnerable to try to learn this new language. We have felt dumb many times.  We have made many mistakes.  The other day Dawn asked a teacher to join our family for rewarmed socks for lunch instead of for leftovers!  Joe wanted to ask another student if she arrived first but wound up asking her if she had worn her cousin. We have depended heavily on others to help us navigate.

We've been a week now in Mexico. Veracruz has been a great city to visit. It's the port where Cortez first settled, and their love of all things art and entertainment and shopping on the boardwalk and historical pier has been quite an experience. This is where Mexicans come for vacation and you see hundreds of them when you hit the popular areas. We've not seen a single American in Veracruz except for the three other American students attending our Spanish language school. In fact, we've noticed that there is absolutely no distinguishable ethnic diversity in this state—we have seen no one of African descent, nor Caucasian, nor Asian, Pacific, or otherwise.